Bar Harbor Bell in Boothbay Harbor

A Bar Harbor Bell in Boothbay Harbor.  It's so nice and relaxing to sit out there on a beautiful day and listen to this bell, with breeze, sea, and bird sounds in the background.  SO nice.

Puff Puff

EDM Challenge #6 Draw your favorite well-loved object or a childhood toy.  I went with the childhood toy.  This is Puff Puff, and more about my history with Puff Puff is written on the drawing (and is hopefully legible).  He really does have that dour expression.  I always thought it was funny.

Sleeper Sofa

EDM Challenge #5 - Draw your bed.  While on vacation, my bed is the sleeper sofa on the floor of the living room.  This was a hard thing to draw!  I have no idea how to approach the wrinkles on the quilt and how they affect the design, and the shadows just wound up making the thing look dirty.  Actually, it's the best incentive for making my bed that I can think of -- a messy bed is harder to draw.  I might try this challenge again sometime, but for now, naptime is over.

Renys Mug

EDM Challenge #4 - Draw your mug or cup.  This was fun!  I knew I was getting into trouble when I chose a mug with words going around it, but it's one of my favorite mugs, so....  I love the idea that Renys (a store with several locations in Maine that has closeout sales and things) is "A Maine Adventure".  (And there's no apostrophe in the name.  I looked it up.)  I do wish I had kept another mug of coffee next to me so I could drink the stuff while drawing it.

Purse

EDM Challenge #3 - Draw a purse, wallet, or bag.  Many years ago now, a friend's mom bought me a little black bag.  I still don't really know why, except that she seemed to think that I would like it.  She was right.  I loved that bag until it finally broke from years of constant use.  I've never found another bag just like it (and believe me, I've tried!), but this one comes closest, and has been my constant companion for a couple of years now.  Thank goodness it's sturdy!

Periwinkle Repurpose

A tiny sketchbook for a tiny shell.  When I traveled to Maine, I brought along only my little 6"x6" sketchpad.  It hasn't seemed to fit anything very well, but this tiny shell worked just fine!  As written on the page, this is an empty periwinkle shell with something new living in it -- either an anemone or a tiny urchin, I suppose.  It was very cool.  I've been trying to work on getting even continuous tone with graphite, but I always get impatient at some point and you can see the scratches.  I must practice patience....

I don't have a scanner, so I tried taking a photo and uploading that, but it's pretty fuzzy.  Perhaps a photo taken in daylight.

Lamp

EDM Challenge #2 - draw a desk lamp or other lamp.  This lamp is a lot prettier than the desk lamp I have at home!  It's got a mess of pine cones and pine needles inside it, and the shade is cut to show the shapes of birds, pine cones, and needles.  There's even a pine cone on the very top.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do the glass, but I'm pretty happy with it!

Maltese Millennium Falcon

Another thing I'd like to start trying more of is Urban Sketching.  I imagine it's usually difficult to use the computer and graphics tablet to do plein air painting, but when you're on vacation and your living room looks out on the ocean, it's not such a hardship!  This "SuperYacht", the Zefira, came into the harbor today and dwarfed everything else around it.  I looked it up and found that it's 163 feet long, and I don't even know how high that mast is--this drawing doesn't quite capture that scale.  The yacht is big and gray and from Malta, and if I were in charge, I would have called it the Maltese Millennium Falcon...but I'm not in charge.

Shoe

Naptime is over and the first challenge is complete.  It's not exactly what I want, but I'm not unhappy with it!  The challenge was to draw a shoe, and this is my idea of a shoe during this hot, hot summer.  Also, these sandals are new and super comfy!

Hello

I'm going to try to start participating in the EDM weekly drawing challenges (from Everyday Matters), doing as many of the past challenges as possible on the other days of the week. My drawing time is limited to my son's naps, though, so I'll see how well I do daily! It looks like the first one is to draw a shoe. Hoping to post a drawing later!